Sliding apparatus on snow

ABSTRACT

A sliding apparatus on snow comprising: a sliding plate in the shape of a snow board, a front stay having a lower end attached to a front portion of the sliding plate pivotably only in a front and rear direction and which extends in a skewed rear upper direction therefrom, a handlebar at an upper end of the front stay, a frame stay having a front end pivotably attached at a middle portion of the front stay and which extends in a bifurcated shape rearward and downward in a central position over the sliding plate, wherein at each of end of the frame stay having the bifurcated shape, a frame extension portion is connected, each frame extension portion extending along edges of the sliding plate and fixed thereto, a feet supporting plate between the two frame extension portions, a supporting stay having front end pivotably attached to an upper portion of the front stay and which extends rearwardly and downwardly, and a rear end attached pivotably to the feet supporting plate, a feet holding belt attached to the frame extension portions or to the feet supporting plate, and suspension members provided in an axis of the front stay, the frame stay, and the supporting stay to absorb forces which occur in an axial direction on the stays during bending of the sliding plate.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a 371 based on European International ApplicationNo. PCT/EP02/00558 filed Jan. 21, 2002 of German Patent Application No.101 02 340.5, filed Jan. 19, 2001, the priority of which is herebyclaimed.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a sliding apparatus on snow.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to a sliding apparatus on snow.

As a representative sliding apparatus on snow, there is known a snowboard. However, following two difficulties are accompanied in operatingthe snow board.

-   1) A snowboard rider slides in a transverse direction while keeping    balance in a posture directed in the transverse direction, which is    not natural in view of human anatomy and operation thereof is    difficult.-   2) Although the lower half of the body of the rider is fixed to the    instrument, the upper half of the body is in a free state and the    balance is difficult to keep.

As other sliding apparatus on snow, there is becoming known aso-to-speak ski bob disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,975. Such a skibobis provided with a structure having a front steering sliding plate and arear supporting sliding plate, having a support plate for mounting toalign both feet of the user above the rear supporting sliding plate andattached with a handle at the front steering sliding plate.

According to the snow bicycle, a rider slides in the front directionwhile being directed to the front direction and accordingly, the snowbicycle is more excellent in view of the human anatomy than the snowboard, further, since the handle is provided, the upper half body can berestricted to some degree and therefore, there is achieved an advantagethat maneuverability is comparatively excellent.

However, according to the skibob, substantially over the entire lengthof the supporting sliding plate which needs bending thereof, a frameextension portion constituting an extension portion of a rigid frame isfixed and therefore, the maneuverability inherently provided to thesliding plate is not used to full effect, That is, according to theabove-described skibob, there are following four drawbacks.

-   1) The direction cannot be changed by operating the handle. Instead,    the direction is changed by edging (physical weight movement). A    rider is rather liable to depend on the presence of the handle and    the operation is troublesome.-   2) By being divided in two parts, the effective edge length is    extremely shorter than that of a ski or a snow board because the    length of about 160 cm from the front end portion of the front plate    to a rear end portion of a rear plate and an adverse influence is    effected on operation of the device.-   3) The front plate is short and full of the feature of “bending”    inherently provided to the plate is not made.-   4) In the case of the current structure, when the handle is turned    to the left, the frame falls to the left and when the handle is    turned to the right, the frame falls to the right. In that case, a    sliding turn must be carried out while turning “the handle    reversely” in sliding. That is, a turn must always be made while    decelerating.

Hence, it would be advantageous to provide a novel sliding apparatus onsnow excellent in maneuverability in view of human anatomy and capableof making full use of feature of a sliding plate per se excellently.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A sliding apparatus on snow comprising: a sliding plate in the shape ofa snow board, a front stay having a lower end attached to a frontportion of the sliding plate pivotably only in a front and reardirection and which extends in a skewed rear upper direction therefrom,a handlebar at an upper end of the front stay, a frame stay having afront end pivotably attached at a middle portion of the front stay andwhich extends in a bifurcated shape rearward and downward in a centralposition over the sliding plate, wherein at each of end of the framestay having the bifurcated shape, a frame extension portion isconnected, each frame extension portion extending along edges of thesliding plate and fixed thereto, a feet supporting plate between the twoframe extension portions, a supporting stay having front end pivotablyattached to an upper portion of the front stay and which extendsrearwardly and downwardly, and a rear end attached pivotably to the feetsupporting plate, a feet holding belt attached to the frame extensionportions or to the feet supporting plate, and suspension membersprovided in an axis of the front stay, the frame stay, and thesupporting stay to absorb forces which occur in an axial direction onthe stays during bending of the sliding plate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The drawing is a schematic perspective view of a sliding apparatus inaccordance with aspects of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This invention includes a sliding apparatus on snow comprising:

a sliding plate in a shape of a snow board:

a front stay a lower end of which is attached to a front portion of thesliding plate pivotably only in a front and rear direction and whichextends in a skewed rear upper direction therefrom:

a handle fixed to an upper end of the front stay;

a rigid frame a front end of which is pivotably attached to a middleportion of the front stay and which is extended therefrom toward a rearside thereof while being divided in a bifurcated shape and extended to alower side thereof from a central position above the sliding plate inthe front and rear direction to a rear side thereof;

two pieces of frame extension portions continuous to the rigid frame inthe bifurcated shape, extended to a rear side thereof along side edgesof the sliding plate and fixedly attached to the sliding plate;

a feet supporting plate arranged between the frame extension portions;

a rear stay a front end of which is pivotably attached to an upperportion of the front stay, which is extended there from in a rear lowerdirection and a rear end of which is attached pivotably to the feetsupporting plate;

a feet holding belt attached to the frame extension portions or the feetsupporting plate; and

suspensions provided at the front stay, the rigid frame and the rearstay.

A detailed explanation will be given of a structure of a slidingapparatus on snow according to an embodiment of the invention asfollows, with reference to the drawing, which shows a perspective viewwith the representation of a sliding apparatus on snow according to anembodiment of the invention. The number 10 designates a slidingapparatus on snow, 12 a sliding plate, 14 a front stay, 16 a hinge, 18 ahandle, 20 a rigid frame, 22 a hinge, 24 a frame extension portion, 26 aframe extension portion, 28 a feet supporting plate, 30 a feet holdingstrap, 32 a rear stay, 34 a hinge, 36 a hinge, 38 a suspension, 40 asuspension, 42 a suspension and 44 a suspension.

A sliding apparatus 10 according to the invention is provided with asliding plate 12 in the shape of a snow board. As the sliding plate 12,there can be used an existing snow board provided with holes forattaching a frame and the like, which is described below. As a snowboard, any snow board for downhill, alpine and free style can be used.

At a front portion of the sliding plate 12, a front stay 14 is attachedat a lower end 14a thereof by a hinge 14 pivotable only in the front andrear direction of the sliding plate 12. The front stay 14 is extended ina skewed or inclined upper rear direction by a predetermined length fromthe lower end 14 a in consideration of the physical size of the rider.An angle made by the above-described front stay 14 and the sliding plate12 is preferably 60 through 80 degrees, particularly, about 65 through75 degrees.

At an upper end of the front stay 14 there is fixed a handle 18 in ashape as illustrated.

At a middle portion of the front stay 14 there is attached a rigid frame20 by a hinge 22 pivotably in an up and down direction. The rigid frame20 extends in a skewed or inclined direction from a central position inthe front and rear direction above the sliding plate 12 to a rear sidethereof while being divided in a bifurcated shape from a front end 20 ato the rear side. The rigid frame in the bifurcated shape is integrallyprovided with frame extension portions 24 and 26 continuous thereto. Theframe extension portions 24 and 26 are extended to the lower side alongside edges of the sliding plate 12 and are fixed to the sliding plate 12by screws.

There is provided feet supporting plate 28 on which the rider's feetmount between the frame extension portions 24 and 26. It is preferablethat a main body of the feet supporting plate 28 is constituted of arigid rectangular metal plate and is welded to side portions of theframe extension portions 24 and 26 substantially over entire lengths oftwo side portions thereof. Further, it is preferable that the feetsupporting plate 28 is integrated with the sliding portion 12 by beingfixed to the sliding plate 12 by screws at least at four locations atboth sides of the front portion and rear portion thereof. It ispreferable that the frame extension portions 24 and 26 and the feetsupporting plate 28 are first welded and are afterwards fixed to thesliding plate 12 by screws. It is preferable that the feet supportingplate 28 is coated with rubber at an upper face thereof constituting afeet mounting surface for slippage prevention. Further, at a frontportion of the feet supporting plate 28 (or frame extension portions 24,26), there is attached a feet holding strap 30 in a shape of a belt of asandal.

An upper portion of the front stay 14 is attached with a rear stay 32 ata front end thereof by a hinge 34 pivotably in the up and downdirection, The rear stay 32 is extended in a skewed or inclined rearlower direction and a lower end thereof is attached to the sliding plate12 or the feet supporting plate 28 on a rear side of the feet holdingstrap 12 by a hinge 36 pivotably in the up and down direction.

The rear side stay 32 is arranged between the two legs of the rider forease of turning by applying the rider's physical weight on an edge onthe inner side of a turn. In order to efficiently transmit forceresulting from the rider's physical weight, it is preferable that thefeet supporting plate 28 is fixed to the sliding plate 12 as firmly aspossible.

There are provided suspension members 38, 40, 42 and 44 at middleportions of the front stay 14, the rigid frame 20 and the rear stay 32.The suspension members 38, 40, 42 and 44 function to absorb bending whenthe sliding plate 12 is bent in cooperation with the hinges 16, 22, 34and 36. Thereby, according to the sliding apparatus on snow, duringturning, the edges of the sliding plate 12 can be used to full effectand turning performance and maneuverability are significantly promoted.In contrast thereto, according to the above-described skibob, thesliding plate on the rear side is substantially a rigid member byattaching the frame or the feet supporting plate and as mentioned above,turning performance and maneuverability thereof are not so excellent.

The sliding plate 12 is constituted of a conventional snow boardconstituting material laminated with wood, metal, fiberglass or carbonfiber by synthetic resin. It is preferable that side edge portions of alower face side of the sliding plate are reinforced by sharp metal railsor so-to-speak edge material to protect against friction with regard toa sliding face constituting ice and snow although a degree thereofdiffers and against static friction particularly in the case of turning.

Meanwhile, it is preferable to constitute the front stay 14, the rigidframe 20 (including frame extension portions 24, 26) and the rear stay32 by metal pipes of, for example, an aluminium alloy.

In sliding on snow by the sliding apparatus explained above, a rideraligns and mounts both feet on the feet supporting plate and insertsthen into the strap and slides while holding the handle. Thereby, therider can slide while directing the body in the advancing direction withthe forward posture. Further, by holding the handle, balance of theupper half of the body can easily be kept. Further, in addition to theabove-described, by making effective use of the bending of the slidingplate, as described above, the turning performance of the snow board ismaintained while ease of use of the so-to-speak snow bicycle ismaintained.

1. A sliding apparatus on snow comprising: a sliding plate in the shapeof a snow board, a front stay having a lower end attached to a frontportion of the sliding plate pivotably only in a front and reardirection and which extends in a skewed rear upper direction therefrom,a handlebar at an upper end of the front stay, a frame stay having afront end pivotably attached at a middle portion of the front stay andwhich extends in a bifurcated shape rearward and downward in a centralposition over the sliding plate, wherein at each end of the frame stayhaving the bifurcated shape opposite the front end, a frame extensionportion is connected, each frame extension portion extending along edgesof the sliding plate and fixed thereto, a feet supporting plate betweenthe two frame extension portions, a supporting stay having a front endpivotably attached to an upper portion of the front stay and whichextends rearwardly and downwardly, and a rear end attached pivotably tothe feet supporting plate, a feet holding belt attached to the frameextension portions or to the feet supporting plate, and suspensionmembers provided in an axis of the front stay, the frame stay, and thesupporting stay to absorb forces which occur in an axial direction onthe stays during bending of the sliding plate.
 2. The sliding apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the front stay constitutes an angle of 60to 80° with the sliding plate.
 3. The sliding apparatus according toclaim 1 or 2, wherein rear ends of the frame extension portions areconnected with an arcuate connection portion projecting in a skewedupper direction from the sliding plate.